How to choose color to get the effect you want without making costly mistakes

One of the exciting parts of decorating your home is taking a trip to the DIY store to pore over the often overwhelming choice of paint colors. You may do the sensible thing and try out a sample at home before purchasing gallons of the stuff. Sometimes though, even the best laid plans can go horribly wrong!

For starters, how big was the surface area you painted with the sample jar? Did you leave it there long enough to see how it worked at different times of day? Did you pull together a mood board to see how it will look once all of your new accessories are placed in the room? Although paint is relatively cheap, updating a whole room with new furniture and accessories only to realize it doesn’t work, can be an expensive mistake.

It’s often the case that you purchase your favorite color only to find out that once you have painted the entire space it doesn’t look anything like you thought it would. It might be too bright, too dull, make the room seem smaller or uninviting.

So how can you make sure you get it right first time? Remember these simple rules:

The Color Wheel | Choosing the Right Color in Interior Design

Be brave but use a color wheel

Don’t be afraid to use color to inject your personality into your home, but if you are going to be bold it is worth buying a simple color wheel to help you determine which colors work well together. Interior designers often have an instinct about color, but will also take in to account, space, light, tone, depth, hue, contrasting colors, complimentary colors and much more to make sure they are right. You don’t have to go into this much detail, but a color wheel will help you visualize the colors together, as well as, making you aware of which other colors may work better.

Research

With so many images available on the internet you should be able to find something that resembles the color scheme you are thinking of. When you find a few, print them and keep coming back to them. You may find the novelty wears off after a couple of days.

Create a moodboard

Again this doesn’t have to be as in depth as something your interior designer would present to you but it is definitely worthwhile sourcing paint and fabric samples and displaying them together as best you can with any pictures of furniture and accessories you are thinking of using. Seeing them all together can often produce a very different look to the one you imagined.

Paint a large piece of paper and hang it up on each relevant surface

Instead of painting a small square directly on to the wall, paint a large piece of paper instead and hang that up. This way, not only do you get a better idea of how the color will look on a large scale, but you won’t create an uneven surface on your wall or a dark patch that means an extra coat of paint should you lose your confidence and paint it white!